On the altitude dependence and role of zonal and meridional wind shears in the generation of E region metal ion layers

Abstract

Abstract Krall et al. (2020) simulated metal ion layers in the E region ionosphere observed by the ISR at Arecibo, by considering vertical ion-motion and convergence driven by zonal and meridional winds. They report that the observed altitude structure is produced if only meridional wind forces are included in the model. Also, layer formation below 110\xa0km, where the ions are very weakly magnetized, is supported mainly by meridional wind shears. We question these finding which contrast with our present knowledge. We show that layer forming in the lower E region is controlled by zonal, rather than meridional, wind shears.